Alternate Text List Overview

An alternate text list is a type of component that enables you to define text values to place into the final assembled document in place of a Multiple Choice variable's options. For example, suppose you create three options (A, B, and C) on a Multiple Choice variable. If the following text strings make sense in the context of these options, you might choose to create a list text component containing values of Apple, Banana, and Cantaloupe. While you specify the Multiple Choice variable's options and prompts directly in the Multiple Choice variable editor (whether accessed through the HotDocs Field Editor, or in Component Studio), if you want to use alternate text for each option you create in the Multiple choice variable, you need to create an Alternate Text List component. If you do this and then add the alternate text (by selecting Use alternate text for each option in the Multiple Choice editor or in the Field Editor) HotDocs places these text values into the final document (in place of the Multiple Choice variable's options) during document assembly.

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Common Tasks

Among others, the Alternate Text List Component enables you to perform the following common tasks:

• Creating and Editing an Alternate Text List Component

Differences Between Multiple Choice Options and Alternate Text

There are actually three parts to a Multiple Choice variable:

• Options—the actual values to the choices you add to the variable; when a user selects an option in the interview, HotDocs saves that the value of the option as the answer
• Prompts—the text you provide to describe the options to your end-user; for example, if you believe your option text could be misunderstood, type a prompt for the option to help your end-user choose which option to select (If you don't provide a prompt, HotDocs use the option text as the prompt)
• Alternate text—the text you want HotDocs to place into the assembled document when your template user selects a particular option (if you don't provide any alternate text, HotDocs places the option text into the document)

If you are using alternate text in a computation, you must type quotations and chevrons around the Multiple Choice variable name, otherwise HotDocs uses the option text in the computation instead. For example typing "«MCVariable»" tells HotDocs to use the alternative text values, but typing MCVariable tells HotDocs to use the option text instead.